Farseed

I'm about to graduate with a Sceince Education degree. My concentration is in physics and I speak spanish well. As a Navy veteran and father to five children, I'm told that I'm a very attractive candidate in the public school system and that my career is all but assured. But I am very atypical of today's new teachers.In my area of the country, new teacher salary starts at twenty-eight thousand dollars a year (or ten month period). Like most of the country, we have a difficult time permanently filling science and math teaching positions in public schools. Some systems use incentive programs that either add a percentage (usually eight percent) increase to the state's pay. More school systems use a sign-on bonus in the range of $2000to attract new teachers. Often new teachers will come into our state from other states, accept the positions, collect the bonuses and immediately turn in their resignation after teaching for one year.A new initiative is underway that aims to pay teachers more in oreder to attract new and very qualified teachers. A pilot program is paying new science and math teachers forty-two thousand dollars per year with some minimum term agreement - eighteen months, I believe. Not all counties are part of the new pilot program. Many in the education field are holding their breaths, hoping that a new recruitment process will attract and keep excellent teachers in these two needy fields. Most are skeptical that it will work and set a new precedent.The program was personally described to me by the president of our state's university system during a recent visit to my university's campus. Some in our audience received the news as little more than polictical overtures and others felt that it could be the beginning of something new: teachers getting paid what they deserve. The basis for the new pay schedule was determined by offering a salary that would be comparable not to other teachers, but relative to what such professionals in the science and math fields would earn in the private sector. The idea is that if we offer our best scientific and mathematical candidates sums that can compete with the private sector, new recruits won't have to choose between doing something they would love and enjoy (teaching) and earning a salary that will allow them to provide comfortably for their families.The idea/change/innovation that makes this post germane to the topic is wide-ranging and socially upheaving. The teacher's union is huge and active. I'm neither a member nor supporter of the union - I know nothing about it. I've heard bits that the union will not go for such a new change because of the old blood in the system. Arguably so, a veteran history teacher with twenty years of experience would still earn less than a new science teacher under the above mentioned pilot program. Jealousy in the ranks is bound to flare. I'm not sure what to expect, I just want to teach.What kind of program do you think would attract new teachers and help retain them?

I have met many people of varying backgrounds during my lifetime. Getting to know others has always been a pastime of mine. Since moving west of Appalachia, I have met people lacking one of the most basic experiences I have always taken for granted - feeling the ocean. Since I fancy myself becoming a teacher in the future and enjoy social challenges, I would like to explain to someone such an experience. I want to share my knowledge of the ocean with those who have never laid eyes on her. The ocean I know is different from that which others may tell.While at sea one can continuously bask their senses in what the waters have to offer. I love to go to the bow of the ship during the day just to peer into the depths. The water truly is the deepest and most royal of azures. Looking from high above, the surface shimmers somewhat like computer animation. Rising and dipping in random swells, the surface tension can look opaquely silver one moment and then transparent aqua the next. The only constant is its mercurial nature. Searching beyond the waves, one can see large seafloor formations to depths of one hundred feet as if they were within a hand?s grasp. Darker rock precipices and lighter sandbars dot and swirl the ghostly panorama, flowing together like wax in a lava lamp.I always enjoy moving to a lower deck that is closer to the billowing misty waves kicked up by the ship?s hull. One can lean his body out and over into the aerial wake of wet brine. During high winds and faster speeds, the water would often crest over the side decks and spray those walking by, giving cool refreshment while leaving a sticky film on their skins. The waves crashing against the ship would atomize and rise above the water to meet noses. The sea?s salt is somewhat different from your garden-variety table salt. It is more akin to medicinal salts used for baths with a mild rotting smell, giving hint to its living qualities.Another of my favored activities is to creep out onto the stern deck late at night, long after and long before the sun shines. Without a moon above the event is more stunning, but moonlight will not impede one?s enjoyment of this sight. The ocean is brimming over with small, live creatures collectively called plankton. When the ship?s impellers churn the water, a phosphorescent trail is left behind as the plankton is mixed and stirred. A spectral, broad highway of pale green can be seen for miles aft of the ship. At the point closest to the viewer swirling plankton is much like a kaleidoscope but with one color. The points of light lazily twirl in semicircles and crescents until finally becoming still again on the surface. The actual graphics are similar to shutting one?s eyes tightly, rubbing them furiously and then quickly opening them again to see the tiny purple stars dance about.When most people write about the ocean, I find that the beach is always mentioned. That is well and fine, but I feel that the sand and surrounding activities take away from and drown out the full drama of what the ocean really is. I would suggest that one take a boat trip and quietly pay attention to the surroundings in order to see what the ocean is truly about. Learning the ocean I know, my ocean, is a unique and fulfilling experience.

Here is my first experience using Expedia.com for purchasing airline tickets. My close friend is from Mexico. He was recently diagnosed with a very serious medical problem and it was decided that he should return to his homeland to see his family and seek further medical care. The whole situation was a complete surprise and we had to make some quick decisions. Buying tickets was just one of them. Logged into various web sites and looked for deals on tickets from North Carolina (USA) to Mexico City. We got a deal for about $400 each ticket. Some vendors had tickets for as high as $750, and we were looking at traveling in less than one week of the purchase. I expected to pay a premium an was quite relieved that we didn't have to. Everything with the purchase itself was just fine. There were no hangups at the airport and everything was in order. The problem we did have came on the morning of the flight. Four hours before the plane was to takeoff, we cheked our bank account for available funds. We had a negative balance, and honestly - that never happens. At first we thought we had been cleaned out by an unscruplous waiter from a restaurant, or something similar. We got online and started making phone calls to see what was going on. We didn't even have money to fill our gas tank to get to the airport. What we find is that Expedia had put an $800 authorization hold on our account when we first made the purchase online. That's fine, I understand how that works. The authorization was supposed to be lifted after "three or four days" to give the airline ample time to do their charges while the cash is still in the bank. The airline did indeed make their transaction from my account the very next day from the date of our purchase. So in the end, I was charged about $800 from the airline, and was still under the $800 authorization hold from Expedia. In effect, my account was down $1600 for an $800 purchase. We could not withdraw cash nor use our debit card at the gas pump. This information was given to us by our bank's representatives. First, Expedia denied having the hold. "We've already released that hold. It may take a couple of days for it to post to your account." So they expected us to be under the gun for those couple of days, which happend to include the day of our travel. I figured with some diplomacy and reasoning, I could get this removed. I called back to my bank, explained the situation, and asked what could be done. Understandably, they cannot remove a vendor's hold on my account because I ask them to. However, they were willing to work with me. My bank said that if a representative from the vendor (Expedia) were to call and ask for the hold to be removed, then he (the bank rep) would remove the hold immediately and make the money in our bank available to us. Sounds reasonable. The following three calls to Expedia yielded nothing. For the first call, we were directed to "the wrong department" and was asked to call back and ask for another department. For the second call, we were hung up on by the Expedia representative. I don't know if you can tell from my tone, but I assure you that I was always calm, never disrespectful, or otherwise malevolent. Finally, for the final call, we had a representative that seemed to understand our problem and was trying earnestly to see how she could handle the situation with her supervisors, etc. I don't know, she at least sounded sympathetic and put on us hold a number of times. The end party-line was this - "We don't make those kind of phone calls." Expedia put the hold on our account to insure that the airline could do their transaction. After the transaction occured, their was no use of the hold on our account. Expedia was willing to let the hold fall off the account through their automated wait system. My bank was willing to talk to someone from Expedia and verify that the airline had indeed drafted the money from our account and was satisfied. Expedia had already internally set the hold to be removed. All I f#$%&* needed was for Expedia to call my bank, the bank would tell Expedia that the airline had their money, and then Expedia could say "Great, then please remove the authorization hold we have on the customer's account. There is no further use for it." All I needed was a simple, toll-free phone call from one vendor representative to a bank representative.

Yes, I'm certain that these events control population. It's no mystery that this planet can support only so much life. Resources are simply not limitless. People are still organisms, no matter how lofty we set our minds to be. We obey the law of self-preservation, and we need resources to do so. We obey the law of pro-creation, and we need resources to do so. Because we live near other humans, we tend to disagree over who gets what resources because we're all looking at the same limited set. So even if there were no other moral standards for wars, we'll eventually disagree over who gets what. It can be different. But for today, this is the way we're doing it. As far as disasters and epidemics, they serve the same purpose but are apparently motiveless. Unless you want to bring God into it (I'll sidestep that issue, thanks), these natural events can have the potential to remove population sets from the planet and in the end preserve resources from being consumed. Of course, the same resources are just available for others, human or otherwise, to consume eventually. Wisdom jump? Definitely. Curious thing about the human race: we are most creative when finding ways to destroy each other. The Stonge Age lead to tools and axes with which to cleave limbs. The Bronze Age led to better tools and spear tips with which to puncture torsos. Combustion engines led to cars and tanks. Usually the tech leads the war, but in your example the war led the tech. WWII was the first largely industrialized war, meaning that we were heavily industrialized before the start of the war. We had some tech know-how with which to lead our research into how to kill more people. The Germans began working on an atomic bomb before we did, and only after a letter and dire warning from Albert Einstein did we begin our own research on the weapon. The Korean and Vietnam Wars led to helicopter advances. The Gulf Wars led to intelligent killing via satellites and remote cameras. Your views are very valid, imo.

Full Story: Spanish 'Star-Spangled Banner' Draws Ire In summary, a new spanish version of the song "Star Spangled Banner" is being released and is drawing fire from different segments of the American population. The entire immigration issue is a large one, and if I write as much as I tend to about this subject I'm afraid that no one would reply. I don't know what it is about large, organized posts that scare people off... Ya know, our spanish population just want to be accepted, is what it comes down to. They're already here and, in many cases, being more productive than a significant portion of our other vocal minorities. Quietly for years, Latinos have lived in our country, working hard and contributing to our economy in way that many other 'legitimate' citizens cannot or would not. Like it or not, this is truth. They love this country and the opportunity it provides. Their work ethic is unparalleled and their devotion to family would put to shame all of the 'family values' sycophants we see running for office (both parties). Yes, there are some negative segments of the population as well as there are with any population. I'm not making sweeping generalizations about the people as a whole, but comparitively speaking Latinos do tend to exhibit these characteristics when put against other ethnicities. They want to have a song in their language to celebrate America, closely modeled after our own anthem. What's the harm in that? Native Americans had their songs and dance celebrating their land before 'we' came. As we brought smallpox and goldlust, we made our own song for country based on a European beer drinking song. How's that for irreverant blasphemy? I'm sick of the 'entitlement' mentality that Americans demonstrate, that we're somehow better than others because of our birth certificate. At best, we're lucky to have been born here. And we're lucky because our mothers, fathers and grandparents had some values that they were willing to work for. To down spanish speakers for the same values is juvenile and hollow. Let them sing.

There are a handful of reasons why gas is so expensive right now. There was an analyst from the Wall Street journal on The Daily Show last night with Jon Stewart who did a good job of explaining most of it. DemandWorldwide, demand is up. Other developing countries are seeing their demand rates increasing more quickly than here in the US and other more industrialized countries. So not only do gas hog countries such as the United States demand a lot, you have relatively newer populations coming into the gas craze as well. More countries are going to the bargaining table for more gas, which drives up prices for everyone. Seasonal demands also increase the price for a gallon of gas as the travel season starts for the northern hemisphere, which is home to most of the industrialized populations of the planet. Simply put, all of the different forms of demand increase the price of gas. SupplyAt least for the last 5-10 years, there have not been any new domestic sources of oil found and/or drilled, so supply has not increased. As more people (see above) are asking for the same oil barrels, the price naturally goes up depending on how much we are willing to pay for it. Interest groups for years have prevented US corporations from exploring domestic territories for new oil reserves within US borders, namely Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. If we had allowed ten or twenty years ago oil companies to expand in order to meet the growing demand of the United States and the world, our gas crunch would be considerably less crucial than it has become. For democrats who blame the Gulf Wars on oil, those same democrats could have prevented those wars (according to their own reasoning) by allowing oil exploration to begin with, which would have increased our domestic oil supply. As the demand rises and our domestic supply remains stable, our prices go up. Add to this the inflammation from the increased demand must be met by hostile, foreign sources and we have steeper gasoline rates. CongressLast year the Congress enacted mandatory use of ethanol additives to our gasoline, and by law gas suppliers must make the changes. Ethanol is produced by heavy refining of corn, and the legislation was meant to assist US farmers by adding an extra market for their produce. Refitting and processing costs to the infrastructure have been passed on to the consumer as well as delaying delivery of 'legal' gasoline. The latter effect further drives up consumer cost as legally purchasable gasoline is less available (see supply). ConflictsEveryone's favorite scapegoat is the Iraq war. Fair enough, but there are other hotspots too that supply oil to the world and are under dubious governmental control. Nigeria is a good example, as well as former Soviet territories near the Caspian Sea. As different regimes control the world's oil sources at different times over the decades, the policies of oil producing governments change. Since most oil producing countries produce little else other than oil, and their local conflicts bleed their economies dry, the governments continue to lean more and more on oil production to fuel their wars and (wishfully thinking) rebuild their countries. DistributionThe two hurricanes that smacked our gulf coast last yearknocked out some oil refineries and other critical infrastructure (standby for more hurricanes this and every following year). We can buy all of the inflated oil we want, but we still must refine it and prepare it for consumption. Repairing these facilities has cost corporations money, and these costs are reflected in your local gasoline prices. As gas prices inch upward, so does the cost of transporting it via... gas/diesel using vehicles, which in turn further drives up the price. SpeculationAn intangible and significant factor of gas prices is market speculation, or oil futures. Basically it means how investors feel about the future accessibility of oil. The a large number of investment companies feel the world's oil supply is going to be tight, the price goes up simply because we expect it to. Some companies act on that and buy more today since tomorrow they expect it to cost more. That drives present-day demand up, which further drives up gasoline prices. A lot of this cycle feeds on itself, which is a very dangerous process indeed. Another scapegoat is 'big oil companies' who are posting 'record profits'. Companies operate on margins, meaning they try to produce a certain percentage of profit depending on their gross income. So if they keep the same margins, they make more profits simply by doing more business. Your own household works in much the same way. If you get a new job, you rent a larger apartment or buy a bigger house, purchase a nicer house and probably eat more/better food. As your income increases, you likely spend the same percentage of your income on the different necessities of life. Does that make you a 'big oil company' with 'record profits'? These companies are also having to reinvest more of their profits into future reserve exploration and are hedging against the speculation argument mentioned above. We're going to yell at them if they don't have the gasoline ready, and they won't have the gasoline ready if they can't buy the oil. They're going to need 'record profits' if they're going to be able to afford the oil that we require. The only cure for this is to shift our energy paradigm away from oil and gas. At least decrease the dependency immediately, at best replace it totally in the future. We as a people must make the long term commitment to do this and stop whining how the fault is somewhere else. Are you ready?

You're right - good catch. The statement could be seen as inflammatory. My conclusion I still hold for the above mentioned reasons. When a nation, culture or people call for the destruction of another nation, culture or people, while boasting of their military advantage, and while calling on their local allies to do the same, and offering the same military advantage... the term 'nefarious' sounds appropriate. Why else would they bare their teeth? Iran has also recently suggested they will withdraw from the UN nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Their antagonistic mannerisms affect not only the United States, but the nations of the world. It's difficult to understand how any self-respecting nation can agree to treaties for as long as such is convenient, and then withdraw as soon as they feel strong enough to threaten others. FTW is their diplomacy of the day. It's really a shame that their people will continue to suffer for as long as they are kept weak and cowering in their hovels by their autocratic leaders. To elaborate on my cultural comparison, I think there is something inherent in their culture that prevents them from (a) working with other cultures and ( seeing beyond their present condition, let alone their generation. Iran seems only to want to work with people of the same subscribers of hate, and their leadership seeks only the quickest, easiest and most deadly upperhand over their perceived enemies. Can't there be an Islamic country that can reject their seething hate and concentrate on raising their people out of their third-world status? Why not accept nuclear power for its infrastructural cornucopia and allow the world's aggred upon inspectors to come look if it's for peaceful purposes? If that were the case, then why all the resistance? The world's greatest leaders, from cultures all over, provided peaceful gains for their grandchildren and generations to come all over the world. The Greek polis and civil service taught us to live and work together for the greater good. Gandhi and his peaceful resistance showed us the might is not always right. Reagan's doctrine of peace through strength gave birth to a quiet arms race in which the winner didn't light off a single warhead. The ancient Roman empire's representative governments gave power (initially - there are glaring dictator exceptions) to the people and emphasized on infrastructure and public health. Can comparable examples be pulled from the middle east region? (Plenty of bait in this paragraph!)

Iran Ready to Transfer Nuclear Know-How Just when I thought that this whole situation couldn't get any worse. Iran's supreme leader has decided to advertise to the world that their nuclear technology is available to friends and neighbors. Oh, and they've called for the destruction of Israel. And um, they have told the United Nations to forget any ideas of sanctions, reviews and observations of their programs. Does anyone else see the problematic potential of it all? Debate all you want on the pros and cons of nuclear technology. I've worked with it (power producing, not weapons grade) before, and it can do wondrous and amazing things. When the sister technology of weapons grade nukes is boasted about and held secretly in the closet... watch out. It's amazing that they're hold such a swaggering stance as they wave the threat like the banner of some long forgotten and noble cause. In their culture of hero worship and dogmaticism, whoever is in charge will only push the envelope until they reach their own self-destruction. I think it's hard for them to envision these things. Their culture is not built upon the same principles as Western civilization, so their purposes and motives behind this technology must be veiled and nefarious. Enhancing the danger is the inherent irresponsibility associated with great power achieved without the struggle and work involved in its creation. They don't respect the scientific processes and methods that brought this technology to light, and hold even less respect for their neighbors. The region is not known for its pacifistic nature nor candid openness. If it's not us they find a way to deliver destruction to (again), then bet the house on them tossing nukes just a couple hundred miles over the border. If Iraq can gas their own people, then I am sure that Iran won't think twice about sending a nuke around the corner. If anyone can offer a counterpoint to this megalith of impending doom, please do so. I'm looking at the light at the end of the tunnel, and I think I hear a train whistle blowing.

http://hp.myway.com/portal/ttab02/index.html In short, a New York judge has ruled that a Department of Education employee could not be fired for using the Internet while at work. It could set precedent for further rulings and even save some jobs. A lot of people do waste their time browsing the web when they should be productive - there's no denying that. But some employees do use (not abuse) their Internet access wisely, and firing them would be unflinchingly autocratic. Of course, this does not protect anyone from using the web for illegal purposes, but only goes as far as giving some thin layer of protection for use of the technology. Hopefully there will not be reflexive abuse of this and further rulings. Have you or anyone else you know had their job threatened for passive use of the Internet while at work? The judge sounds sensible in his later words, citing how the Internet has become such a standard part of life, both at home and at work. What do you think?

Thanks for the explanations.re: The Formula. Understood, say no more.re: The Edit. Erm, ok.re: Post Credits. I understand how to see the total post count. Is there a way to view the credits given for an individual post? As in, "This post has earned you xxx credits."Thanks a bunch!

Substance, please? Explain the 'lil "air Guard"' episode. Justify impeaching Cheney (is such even parliamentarily possible?) over an acknowledged accident. Hunters get injured in accidents rather often, some even fatal. No one gets charged with a crime because it's an acknowledged inherent risk of the sport. For an analogy mods don't remove people from the boards for baseless assertions, which is a poignant and serendipitous model for many posters.

First, I've read every prepared FAQ, tutorial and user post I could find on this subject. If I missed something, please give me a break. :lol:I understand I gain points depending on the size and quality of my posts. I also understand that some forums give no post count.First, how exactly are posts graded? I'm not going to bicker over degrees of quality becoming numbers, but I'd like to understand how the numbers work at least. Some formula involved?Second, I just witnessed (like a crime!) my hosting credits decrease. What would make that happen? I rarely quote, and I use original material always. Why did I lose those credits? I feel like I was punished somehow. :lol:Third, how can I see how many credits a particular post has earned? I would have a better handle on the system if I could at least see how my posts rate.I'm not trying to take advantage of this wonderful system, just trying to work within its bounds and help it grow. I'm considering moving my community based site to Xisto for hosting, and I could bring more members along with me. Help me understand what's up. Thanks :lol:I see now where a previous post of mine was edited with quotes now, effectively reducing the word content and disqualifying the the meat of the post as non-earning. I'd be happy to authenticate my work. I offered in the post that it was mine, along with the blog reference.I'll be more careful in the future to not plagiarize my own work. No, wait a minute...

A thread is an entity existing in the Tapestry, seemingly with a start node, an end node, and some speed with direction somewhat independent of the whens of its start-stop nodes.Velocity, significance are descriptors of flow. Flow is important, comparable to momentum. Some threads are more significant than others, traveling further or having more nodes of interface with other threads. It may be difficult to ascertain significance until after a thread has been a part of the tapestry for some time, given ample opportunity to interact with the whole. Velocity entails direction and speed. Is the thread flowing with the relative tapestry or against the grain? Does it change direction going askew of the whole or redundantly spend itself over the same area? Does the thread reinforce or stress the surrounding threads?Other characteristics include color, texture, substance, perhaps more. Such characteristics would have varying degrees of significance if any. They may be crucial or not to a tapestry. They may not materially manifest to our senses.Threads can be people. We have semi-certain beginning and ending nodes, we meet other people/threads to form nodes as our threads meet theirs. Lives can be strengthened or cut asunder at nodes. Perhaps a node's purpose is nothing more than serendipity or maintenance. Some threads contribute to the consistency of a tapestry with little effectual change.Nodes represent specific intersections of people and time. We're all related by time, mathematically speaking. When we first meet someone, a node is formed from our threads which continue on dependent upon the circumstances of the node. Did you smile, argue, love or laugh? By approaching a node carefully and tending its flow afterward, we can guide the momentum of threads.I imagine that every living being is a thread, having the spark of life that is associated with their respective thread. For most beings, there are certain states of Life and Death which are simpler ways of saying whether a thread is progressing through this tapestry or not, part of this space-time or not. There may be more than one tapestry. Tapestries may be separated by different criteria. I'm hesitant to say that tapestries are necessarily separated by time, however. If there is to be any common denominator, it must be time. Even as tapestries may be separated by time, tapestries flow with other tapestries.Consider a bird having lived its natural life outside of human realms, neither affecting nor affected. The bird is startled by a predator in the evening, swoops low from one tree to cross a rural highway, is crushed by the impact of an unknown speeding car whose driver loses control, resulting in casualties. These threads were not directly related before, separated across species lines. Yet they met.There are manifolds of tapestries, binding the latter together into what we generally perceive as our collective reality. Is the manifold of earthbound tapestries the only manifold? If not, how do we refer to a set of manifolds?Perhaps the paradigm is too singluar, isolationist. The whole cannot be described without its member threads, making each thread simulatenously insignificant and paramount. If millions form the whole, and the whole cannot exist without a individual, then we must describe the manifold as a thing of constant change.The philosophical caluculus is daunting.

While the kids were here and I was Dad to all for a week, there were lots of fun episodes. The opportunities to teach them are few and I have to cram so much training into them ever so gently. I joke, but the frustration is true. Their normal home training is lacking, but their spirits are high as I work with them. Things like how often to take a bath/shower and how to sit like a lady. I'd rather be the one who tells them at an appropriate age rather than wait until they are untrainable. I think I do alright, but I wonder how other dads do these things if at all.It occurs to me that I should balance time observing life from the outside and participating in active life more often. With the past two weeks being so busy, I spent more time doing things rather than thinking about things. Now I'm noticing my blog entries come in waves. Anyway, it was a nice shift.Ratio of ( ActiveTime/PassiveTime ) per unit time. Again, the denominator is time. Some people can be successful, normal and boring. Some have extreme highs and lows, still being successful. Not everyone can both and still be healthy. People are different.There must be a balance between observing and driving life. I'm reminded of a vision of fish swimming-flying above a river. They can't live there yet jump into the air. Taking the time to remove one's self can be refreshing and inspiring.But one loses momentum. Being out of the water removes propulsion, and life's river can begin to pass you by. An interface of differing temporal refractions exists. When one is active, time is perceived as being quick. When one is inactive, time is perceived as being slow. One state gives clarity, one gives momentum. If a balance is struck, a curve that represents bouncing between the two influences can be seen. Perhaps a helix spiraling between two fields, being repelled simultaneously by the two influences.Spend time acting and observing to achieve. Observation provides wisdom, acting provides a better vantage point. Too much observing leads to inaction, and one will get nowhere. Too much action leads to folly, and one will get nowhere.

Cells communicate with chemicals.The chemicals between us. That's all they can sense. They're no more truly aware of "you" as a person than you really are aware of them as an organism. We can't see each other, and typically only germophobes act as if they consider microbial life on a regular basis.Ants chemically communicate much more so than any other manner. Other insects, plants, water creatures operate similarly. "Lower" mammals still use/depend on chemical exhcanges more than we, be it a bloodhound hot on a trail or a lion marking his territory. Now, ants can see us with light and vice versa, but we consider them insignificant. Much as is their ability to communicate with light.Cells swim in chemicals. Ants bathe in them. Cells do not communicate with light past absorbing color and intensity, like chloroplasts. That's a limited amount of information for what light has to offer, and their livesare governed by chemistry. Flying insects see rushing waves of light in broad swaths, instinctually reacting to it but scarcely able to influence it. A firefly sees on or off, not the beauty of a rose or the hope in a child.Humans attune the information in light, drawing patterns and meanings as subtle as last summer's dream.If the chain continues, we must ask ourselves: What do we swim in? What medium are barely aware of that other organisms may use extensively to communicate and interact with? Are we relatively as ineffectual as ants because we lack awareness in some other realm of communication?Time. That must be the higher medium. Time rushes past our lives as we tumble forward, barely comprehending it all. Some of us catch the wave early enough to get a good ride out of it. Some of us are pulled beneath an undertow, so powerfully dousing any hope of future.If we swim in time, barely aware of it as the cells are of light, then what higher being is it that has attuned time and can draw those subtle patterns from within?Who is beyond us?